1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to automated libraries which house cartridges of information storage media (such as magnetic tape cartridges, for example), and particularly to a picker mechanism for selectively engaging and transporting such cartridges.
2. Related Art and Other Considerations
The economic and compact storage of information is increasingly important in the computer industry, particularly so as the computer unleashes new potentials in numerous fields such as audio visual and/or multimedia.
In the early days of computers, information requiring storage could be transmitted from a computer to a tape drive, whereat the information was magnetically recorded on or read from a large reel of tape. Upon completion of an operation of recording on the tape, for example, the reel would be removed manually from the tape drive and mounted in a rack. Another reel from the rack could then be manually mounted, if necessary, in the drive for either an input (tape reading) or output (recording to tape) operation.
Eventually it became popular to enclose magnetic tape in a cartridge, the cartridge being considerably smaller than the traditional tape reels. While many persons are familiar with tape cartridges of a type which can be loaded into a xe2x80x9ctape deckxe2x80x9d for reproduction of audio information (e.g., music), it is not as commonly realized that similar cartridges, although of differing sizes, can be used to store such information as computer data. For years now magnetic tape cartridges have proven to be an efficient and effective medium for data storage, including but not limited to computer back-up.
Large computer systems have need to access numerous cartridges. To this end, automated cartridge handling systems or libraries for cartridges have been proposed for making the cartridges automatically available to the computer. Many of these automated libraries resemble juke boxes. Typically, prior art automated cartridge libraries have an array of storage positions for cartridges, one or more tape drives, and some type of automated changer or cartridge engagement/transport mechanism for picking or gripping a cartridge and moving the cartridge between a storage position and the tape drive.
The following United States patents and patent applications, all commonly assigned herewith and incorporated herein by reference, disclose various configurations of automated cartridge libraries, as well as subcomponents thereof (including cartridge engagement/transport mechanisms and storage racks for housing cartridges):
U.S. Pat. No. 4,984,106 CARTRIDGE LIBRARY SYSTEM AND METHOD OF OPERATION THEREOF
U.S. Pat. No. 4,972,277 for CARTRIDGE LIBRARY
U.S. Pat. No. 5,059,772-READING METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CARTRIDGE LIBRARY
U.S. Pat. No. 5,237,467 CARTRIDGE HANDLING METHOD AND APPARATUS WITH MOTION-RESPONSIVE EJECTION
U.S. Pat. No. 5,416,653, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/062,547 CARTRIDGE HANDLING METHOD AND APPARATUS WITH MOTION-RESPONSIVE EJECTION
U.S. Pat. No. 5,487,579 for PICKER MECHANISM FOR DATA CARTRIDGES
U.S. Pat. No. 5,498,116 for CARTRIDGE LIBRARY AND METHOD OF OPERATION
U.S. Pat. No. 5,607,275 for CARTRIDGE LIBRARY AND METHOD OF OPERATION
U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,339 for CARTRIDGE RACK AND LIBRARY FOR ENGAGING SAME
U.S. Pat. No. 5,691,859 for CARTRIDGE LIBRARY AND METHOD OF OPERATION
U.S. Pat. No. 6,008,964 for CARTRIDGE LIBRARY AND METHOD OF OPERATION THEREOF
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/970,205 for CARTRIDGE LIBRARY WITH CARTRIDGE LOADER MOUNTED ON MOVEABLE DRIVE ASSEMBLY and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/121,541 for CARTRIDGE LIBRARY AND METHOD OF OPERATION disclose, e.g., a cartridge loader which has xe2x80x9cflippersxe2x80x9d which assist loading and discharge of the cartridge.
Important to the automation of cartridge libraries as previously known has been the provision of the cartridge changer or cartridge engagement/transport mechanism for picking or gripping a cartridge and moving the cartridge between a storage position and the tape drive. Such rotobic mechanisms, often called a cartridge xe2x80x9cpickerxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cgripperxe2x80x9d, is typically mounted in a library frame in order to introduce and remove cartridges relative to one or more stationary drives. The stationary drive and the picker are mounted to the same basic frame structure of the library, but otherwise are structurally independent.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,402,283 to Yamakawa shows a gripper which is oriented in the horizontal plane, which is moved by a first motor driven rack and pinion gear train, and which is opened and closed by a separate (second) motor driven gear train with connecting links, thereby requiring a tray and a separate motor driven rack and pinion system for moving the tray.
A cartridge picker uses only one picker drive motor to perform all of the following operations: [1] open and close gripper fingers; (2) translate a cartridge in and out of a storage slot in a library (e.g., magazine or the like) or tape drive; and [3] push the cartridge into the tape drive (below the flush plane of the drive bezel).